Letter: Contraception holds its own risks to women

Thursday

Jan 30, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Contraception holds its own risks to women

Contraception holds its own risks to women

In the editorial "Freedom of choice" (Jan. 23) concerning the Department of Health and Human Services "contraceptive mandate," you lament objections to the mandate by the Little Sisters of the Poor. The nuns object on the grounds that their religious freedoms would be denied.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act allows the federal government "to force people, including business owners, to violate their religious beliefs only if the government has a 'compelling interest.'" It is suggested that the "contraceptive mandate" will ensure a woman's health and well-being by providing contraceptives to all female workers of reproductive age if prescribed by a physician.

But birth control chemicals can be dangerous to women. There are class-action lawsuits for pills like VAZ, and birth control products can increase the risk of breast and cervical cancer in young women. The Food and Drug Administration is concerned with hormone levels in birth control products. Some women, who have bleeding while on the pill, may not realize that they may be conceiving on low dose hormone pills (ovulation not stopped), but, because the uterine lining has not been properly prepared for implanting the fertilized egg, they may be miscarrying their babies, not avoiding pregnancy,( abortifacients).

Moreover, the "morning-after-pill" and other birth control products can have terrible side-effects (including weight gain). Even environmentalists are concerned that dissolved birth control chemicals could have ill-effects on the drinking water supply. Mandating contraceptives is not a "compelling interest" to the government, because birth control products do not ensure a woman's health or well-being.

Birth control is readily available and inexpensive. Nothing prevents groups that want to control population growth from organizing and providing free birth control for women like those groups that hand out free condoms to men.

It is a broadly unquestioned declaration that life is transmitted at conception. A baby takes nine months to mature and ultrasound technology has become a window to the womb. The DNA of this new and unique individual is formed on its first day of conception and the child's heart begins to beat at 21 days.

I side with The Little Sisters of the Poor. When it comes to freedom of choice, I choose life!